Time Rolls On
by espergirl04
Summary: AU. Because sometimes people do things they regret. Ray/Neela.


I'm pretty sure I started this before ER ended along and I've just now finished it. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own ER or any of the characters.

* * *

"You _what_? With _Brett_." Ray ran a hand angrily through his hair.

She was immediately on the defensive, her arms crossed over her chest and her shoulders tightened. "We knew this was how you were going to react which was why we never told you; my God Ray this was college, what does it matter now?" Dark hair tumbled around her face as she tossed her head slightly, as if she's daring him to respond.

"You told me that you didn't want to get involved with someone you lived with, but you and Brett...you chose Brett."

"I didn't _choose_ Brett! You had gone home for the week, Brett and I got completely pissed one night and one thing led to another. It didn't mean anything, that's why we never told you. I couldn't get involved with you back then, Ray, it would have actually meant something."

Brett, who had been silent up until then jumped in with, "And by pissed she means completely shitfaced."

Neela rolled her eyes, "Same difference."

"No, there's a difference."

She ignored him, "Besides, obviously I chose you considering we're _engaged_."

It was college, really.

* * *

By the third day both Ray and Brett realized that they had a problem. The problem just so happened to come in the form of a girl who was half their size with a sweet accent.

The problem was that she didn't even have to say anything. She just had to look up at them with her big brown eyes and a disappointed look and they would cave. They couldn't say no.

And if one said no then she would try the other and then the other couldn't say no.

Huge problem.

Which was why when Neela emerged from her room wearing tiny jogging shorts and a tank top, Ray took the opportunity to grab his backpack and make a run for the door with a "See you guys later," tossed over his shoulder. She turned her attention to Brett, pulling her thick dark hair into a ponytail and smiled up at him, "Want to go for a run?"

He really didn't. In fact it was the last thing he wanted to do. He wasn't a runner; he was a sit around, play video games, maybe practice drumming kind of guy. "Um…no, not really."

She shrugged but looked up at him again and on her face was that look of slight disappointed. "Alright then, see you later."

Damn. "Wait, just let me change."

Ray asking her to room with them…worst idea _ever_.

When the door didn't slam he thought something was up. And when his roommate entered the room and looked up at him with innocently sweet eyes he knew something was definitely up. Because he was pretty sure that she was still mad at him for the mess he had left in the kitchen that morning. Which meant that more than likely she wanted something. "What's up?"

She smiled and shrugged. "Nothing, I just finished with classes. How were yours?"

Yeah. Normally she ranted for twenty minutes about how her organic chemistry teacher hated her or how she didn't understand why they were still required to have gym credits. He decided to let it go. "Boring."

"So…" her face had suddenly turned slightly pink and she tugged at her dark hair. "So I met this guy…"

He was not having this talk with her. He just wasn't. "Uh, isn't this something you should be talking to Abby about?"

"Oh God it's nothing like that. I met this guy and he wants to go out tonight and I was wondering if maybe possibly you could drive me to the club?" She smiled nervously up at him as if she knew what his answer would be.

His answer would have been no, if he could ever bring himself to say it. "Before I say yes, who is this guy?"

"Sean Honeycutt."

Hell no. Ray knew Sean and even if he hadn't known Sean he would have heard the stories. "No." He knew he was in for it.

Sure enough her eyes narrowed and a scowl formed, "Why not?"

"Because I don't want to be held accountable for dropping you off at a club with Sean. The guy's an ass." He knew Neela was probably thinking that he said it because he and Brett were anti-establishment and Sean was anything but. What, with his and Ralph Lauren, but it was the truth.

"He is not! He was really sweet when I talked to him." Seeing that Ray was about to say something else she cut in with, "Fine, if you won't take me then I'll ask Brett."

Ray was going to make up some story about how Brett was out but their other roommate decided to wander in at exactly that moment. "What're you asking me?"

Shooting a death glare at Ray, she quickly had her smile back on for Brett. "Will you take me to a club tonight? I'm supposed to meet someone."

"Sure." Brett grabbed a box of cereal off the counter and opened it, taking out a handful of Apple Jacks. "Which club?"

Before Neela could answer, Ray cut in, "She's going to meet Sean."

"Sean?" Brett mumbled around his crunching.

"Honeycutt."

And Brett swallowed. Then he turned to Neela. "No way am I taking you to meet him."

Ray gave her a triumphant look and she gave a small growl of frustration. "You're my roommates not my parents! He seemed nice enough to me and if I want to go out with him then I will."

"He's an asshole. Look, Ray and I were thinking about going out tonight anyways so why don't you just come with us?"

That was definitely not the right thing to say. "I am not hanging out with you guys tonight. I don't need you to keep an eye on me and I'm going with Sean whether you drive me or not." She turned to storm out.

"Wait," Ray glanced at Brett. If she was going to go then they couldn't exactly stop her and suddenly it was clear to Ray why she had asked them. She had asked them because she was smart enough not to go by herself, meaning that she also knew that she couldn't trust Sean, meaning that she had asked because she wanted one of them there in case she needed someone to bail her out. Ray sighed, "Okay I'll take you. I'm sure Kayla wouldn't mind going out clubbing tonight."

Neela thanked him and then practically sprinted out of the room, presumably to call Sean, and Ray turned to Brett. "This is going to end badly."

Brett ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. "I know. You want me to come?"

"No, it's cool."

Except he had the distinct feeling that it wasn't going to be cool. No, he had the feeling that things were going to go downhill pretty quickly.

He wasn't sure why but when Neela stepped out of her room ready to go he felt the urge to toss a jacket at her. Or something. That would fully cover her. "Okay, so we," he slung his arm around Kayla, "Are going to be keeping an eye on you, got that?"

She rolled her eyes, "Yes _dad_."

"Let's go then."

It took less than five minutes after meeting up with Sean to confirm Ray's suspicion that the night wasn't going to end well. It took a little longer for Neela to realize it. Apparently Sean's blonde surfer hair and blue eyes were distracting her from the fact that his hands were wandering towards her waist band.

Ray and Brett both had their eyes on her but Ray was already occupied by Kayla so when Neela took yet another shot of tequila, Brett was the one who intervened.

"Hey, you okay?" He asked.

"Brett! There you are," she said happily. A little too happily.

Brett eyed her warily, "Yeah, here I am. Really, are you okay?"

"Yes, absolutely wonderful. Except Ray's a bloody prick."

Uh… "Why?"

"He made me leave with him and Kayla and dragged me here. And now he's over there snogging, not what I want to see." She sighed and flopped down on the couch. "I just wanted to dance."

If he hadn't been inebriated it never would've happened, but he held a hand out, "Come on, I'll dance with you."

She raised an eyebrow, "Really? To this?"

He knew she was referring to the fact that Bad Religion was playing in the background rather than whatever it was the clubs were playing, but he shrugged. "Why not?"

She looked around, "I think we'll be the only ones."

And they were, but it was fun.

He guessed that maybe Ray asking her to room with them wasn't such a bad idea after all.

His door was shut but she wandered in anyways without bothering to knock. Flopping down on the bed next to him she nudged his arm with hers. "Haven't seen you at all today, everything alright?"

Ray groaned, "You know, normally when a door is closed it means that the person wants privacy."

"Oh, you mean you wanted privacy to be all emo and depressed? Because that sounds really entertaining." She propped herself up on her elbow to look at him, "Really though, what's up?"

"Failed my calc exam, was late for a lab, and Kayla and I broke up."

She was silent for a moment and then, "I'm sorry."

When she lowered herself back onto her side and held her arms out, he met her embrace. She was warm and smelled like Herbal Essence and he realized then that maybe part of the reason that he and Brett didn't mind doing things for her was because she returned their favors in ways like that.

It was just him and Neela, who knew where Brett was. And it was a Friday night. They were watching a movie and splitting a pizza and she dove over him for the remote to fast forward through the 'scary' part. Except he didn't let her and they ended up in a tangle of legs and arms and she was lying on top of him and it seemed like a good time to kiss her. Which he did.

"Ray, stop. Don't," she said, pushing herself away from him.

God did he feel like a complete asshole. "Shit, Neela. I'm sorry, really, I'm sorry."

She shook her head, "No, no, I mean you don't have to feel sorry, it's just…we can't. _I_ can't. You're a great guy, a really really great guy, but I can't."

"Uh, why not?" Did she have a boyfriend she had neglected to mention?

"I know this might sound weird but I don't want to get involved with someone I live with. I mean what happens if we hook up and everything is going great and then BAM something goes wrong. And then we're stuck together in this apartment and even though it's a pretty decent sized apartment it will start to shrink until we're always in each other's business and it will be all awkward until we absolutely start to hate one another...I don't want that to happen because like I said, you're a great guy."

Oh. Wow. Only Neela. Only Neela could blow something like that completely out of proportion and analyze it to death until he found the idea unappealing even though she was smoking hot. "Neela, did you uh, did you give this same speech to Brett by any chance?"

She looked horrified, "What? Of course not! Brett and I would never happen…even if we didn't live together."

Judging by the fact the mortification still hadn't worn off her face, he believed her. "Sorry, I was just curious."

She cleared her throat, "Well …I have an essay to finish…maybe we can watch the rest of the movie later?"

"Yeah, yeah I have some stuff to finish up too."

Awkward.

Her parents didn't want to pay for a plane ticket for her to fly to England for fall break and Brett didn't feel like going back to his family. Ray invited them to drive down to Louisiana with him but both passed on the offer.

They were bored. Really, really bored. And so Brett pulled out a deck of cards and Neela pulled out the liquor and they played circle of death with just the two of them, leading to them becoming completely shitfaced in a very, very, short amount of time. They completely skipped over the happy-tipsy feeling and hit the not realizing what was going on until after it occurred.

Light was filtering in through the window and Neela realized with a sinking feeling that she was not in her bed and when she turned over she was lying next to a very naked Brett. "Oh fuck," she groaned.

Brett opened his eyes and blinked a few times before saying, "That happened, didn't it…"

Oh it had happened all right. In fact as she sat up to survey the room she could see a trail of clothes leading into the hallway, "Yeah. That happened."

She closed her eyes and Brett asked, "You don't regret it, do you? I mean…not that I remember much but…"

"I don't necessarily regret it but…"

"But we're friends and it was slightly weird?"

Yeah, that. "And also…" she had only told one person before and that was Abby, "And also I'm in love with Ray and I was a complete idiot and told him that we couldn't be together because we lived together."

"Neela could you possibly not talk about Ray until after we're dressed?"

She flopped back down, "Fine."

Later when Neela was fully showered and clothed and sitting at a Starbucks with Abby she rubbed her face with her hands and moaned her newest revelation, "We still have the whole week together."

Abby grimaced sympathetically, "Well…yes. But it didn't mean anything and I know that it's not really an excuse but it kind of is, you guys were drunk." Abby studied her for a moment when she didn't respond, "There's something you aren't saying."

"I'm repulsed but at the same time I'm not because I sort of think that Brett is hot and maybe just maybe there's a part of me that's kind of attracted to him." She pushed her coffee away from her dramatically, "This is why I can't get involved!"

"Okay, so you like both of them?"

"No, I like Ray," she stated, "I always have." Then she added, "But Brett's been so sweet," she concluded with, "I don't know what to think."

"I think that you should find someone besides your roommates," Abby stated simply.

Neela took Abby's advice and started dating Michael, Brett went back to dating skanks, and they never talked about it again.

* * *

"Fall break, it was fall break junior year wasn't it," Ray accused.

"Well, yeah actually. How did you-"

"Because when I asked you guys how break went you were both really sketchy about it." He had written it off as Brett and Neela had been cooped up with each other for too long but now he knew. "I can't believe that the two of you…"

"Ray can we please not talk about this when we're at our rehearsal dinner."

He raised his eyebrows. "Then when are we going to talk about it? On our wedding day?"

Neela frowned, "I had hoped never."

"Dude, I think you're overreacting," Brett said.

Ray looked over at him, "You stay out of this."

He turned back to Neela, "I just don't see why you couldn't tell me."

"Look, it happened alright? And now you know, and yes, maybe I could have told you before but I always wrote it off as we were drunk and in college." She paused, "Ray, I love you and I want to marry you and I want to not think about what happened because _it doesn't matter_."

It occurred to him the next day as he was slipping a ring onto her finger that she was right, what had happened before didn't matter, _this _was what mattered.


End file.
